Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease in which inflammation and swelling occurs in the joints. This swelling increases gradually and eventually the patient starts feeling pain and discomfort. In the beginning, this too is mild and later it grows and becomes very severe.
The occurrence of osteoarthritis has become very common especially in the old people. A prolonged problem of pain in the joints especially in the old people can be considered a sign of osteoarthritis. If this happens, a medical examination is necessary for diagnosing osteoarthritis. However, in case of old people the tests for osteoarthritis should be included in the routine check ups.
There are several types of tests, which can be used for diagnosing osteoarthritis.
The most primary among them are the physical tests. During the physical diagnosing osteoarthritis, the rheumatologist will examine the symptoms the patient is showing. He will also ask the patient about the other illnesses that have occurred in the past. Some of the examples of such diseases are traumatic injuries if any, allergies, and operations if any.
The physical diagnosing and the medical history of the patient will tell the doctor whether there is any chance of osteoarthritis or not. Based on this primary examination the rheumatologist will decide whether to take the other tests.
Further diagnosing osteoarthritis procedure will include taking radiological images as X-rays. These are the best and most precise tests available. tell let the rheumatologist know if there is any narrowing in the space of joint, or occurrence of spurs, cysts, etc. Moreover, occurrence of any abnormalities as development of holes, or abnormalities in the bone density, etc are also detected in the X-ray images.
Apart from the radiological methods, laboratory tests also can be used for diagnosing osteoarthritis. For the laboratory tests, a small amount of synovial fluid is taken out from the affected joint and tested. The different factors, as viscosity, count of its different constituents, color, presence of infection, etc, are examined during this. If osteoarthritis has occurred, the sample may have cloudy color, and contain some substances as calcium pyrophosphate. This pyrophosphate is one of the causes of irritation in the osteoarthritis patients.
Apart from the tests for synovial fluid, the blood and urine tests also may be done for diagnosing osteoarthritis. These are used in addition to the radiological methods or the tests for synovial fluid. They provide the further information about the cause of osteoarthritis.
